VENDU
3 volumes, 4to (240 x 171 mm) 11 nn.ll. (including engravd title), 155 num.ll. with double pagination (1-150), 5 nn.ll., 150 engraved plates for volume I; 12 nn.ll. (including engraved title), 128 num.ll. with double pagination (1-123), 6 nn.ll., 123 engraved plates for volume II; 18 nn.ll. (including engraved title), 165 num.ll. with double pagiation (1-165), 7 nn.ll., 165 engraved plates (including 2 folding, and one full-page) for volume III. Eighteenth-century citron morocco, triple gilt filet on covers, spines gilt with raised bands, spine labels in red morocco, gilt edges.
1 in stock
Sommervogel, II, 144-147 ; Brunet, IV, 523 ; Berlin Kat., 4714 ; Fowler, no. 108 (“no copy of this work was available for checking so the date has been supplied from the Berlin Catalog”); Vagnetti, EIII:b32.
One of the great French classics on the art of perspective.
The work sets out the theory and all the applications of this discipline, from monumental architecture to interior design, gardens and theatre scenes.
The first part is a first edition. The second and third parts are marked as second editions on the title pages: these are in fact copies made up of leaves from the original editions published in 1647 and 1648-49, with a new title addressed to Dezallier and the date 1679. This heterogeneous condition, which is common – there are volumes with the date 1663 or 1666 – can be explained by the great success of the work, which continued into the next century. Jean Dubreuil, or Du Breuil (1602-1670), a Jesuit, was the son of a Parisian bookseller. He began by following his father’s career, then studied perspective and architecture, fields in which he perfected his skills during a long stay in Rome.
His Perspective practique was written for Louis de Bourbon, Duke of Enghien, who commissioned its publication. The illustration, engraved on copper, consists of 3 allegorical titles and 438 plates: diagrams, projections, plans, façades, interiors, instruments, optical experiments, etc. The frontispiece of volume II, addressed to Jean du Puis, is undated; that of volume III bears the address of the same bookseller and the date 1666. Plates 47, 137 and 138 of volume I contain, as does plate 40 of volume II, proofs pasted in correcting the original engraving (cancels).
Superb set, bound in citron morocco in the early years of the eighteenth century.
Provenance: “Jacques Proffit (?), 168″2 (mention in ink on the titles of volumes II and III, with overprint in black ink and date 1732 on volume III) – Pigache (ink stamp) – Louis Jouvet, with bookplate (sale of 1st April 2005, no. 269).
Slight marginal foxing; bookplate torn off on front- flyleaves.
A fine copy.
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